Reminds me of a study about Vietnam and how so many soldiers were hooked on hard drugs like Heroin and Morpheme. Given the incredibly high rates of recidivism typically associated with those drugs, it was assumed that the returning GIs would have enormous drug problems.

But then something happened. When they returned the majority of the GIs kicked the drug habits and led normal lives. What happened?

Turns out that environment matters. If you send a "cured" drug user back into the same environment that made him turn to drugs in the first place, he's likely to get sucked back into the lifestyle. Drug use is a symptom, not a cause, which is why drug addiction treatment doesn't work very well--it's only treating the symptoms. This is also why Wall Street Bankers can be fantastically successful despite expensive coke habits at the same time crack is considered the scourge of the ghetto.

Unfortunately, the cause is much much more difficult to treat, and involves breaking the cycle of poverty and ignorance.

This puts me in mind of a short story by Grace Paley, A Conversation With My Father. Yes, it's fiction, but this story about storytelling serves as kind of a poignant reminder that this is only one chapter in this woman's life. There is a possibility she will not have to look tragedy in the face.

I'm surprised that they arrested the freshly released convict. How much of a role could he possibly have played in the transaction, particularly If they had surveillance on him from his release to the capture.

It doesn't sound like the police were interested in breaking the cycle of poverty at all.. if they knew that the Mother had the drugs on her they could just as easily have busted her BEFORE they let her son out of jail.

Easy to be snarky, but this was an act of compassion by a mother for her dope-sick son. Anyone who's experienced withdrawals will appreciate this. We should be questioning why we lock people in cages simply because they choose to ingest politically unpopular substances. Laughing at a situation like this lends tacit approval to the drug war.

Yes, in a better world the might have used that information as an opportunity to intervene before Mr. Hoadley's release and try to help him find the help he needed to kick the cycle. Instead they used it as an opportunity to add one more person to the overcrowded and ineffective prison system.

Perhaps mom will now see the downside of enabling her son's drug habit. Instead of taking the time to obtain heroin, she should have made arrangements with one of the local methadone clinics to help him get on the road to recovery.

Sounds like the thoughts of someone who has never known addiction. Heroin and morphine were nowhere near as available in post-Vietnam USA as they are today, never mind their synthetic alternatives. So saying returning vets were able to give it up because of their strength of will is like saying Saudi Arabians are somehow stronger than Americans because their low rate of alcoholism. Opiates aren't something someone simply has the choice to give up, like waking up and deciding "I really don't need that cruller from Dunkin' Donuts." I'm not saying that drug addicts don't bear a measure of personal responsibility, but withdrawal from opiates is not a matter just of choice, it's matter of severe physical distress. And I can understand any parent who would consider at least temporarily alleviating that suffering despite the legal implications. TBFTGOG*GI